


Why should marriage change a thing?

by J_Antebellum



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22233307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Antebellum/pseuds/J_Antebellum
Summary: They kept saying nothing should change with marriage, and then one day Ashlyn gets hurt during a game and together they discover that marriage does, indeed, change the whole game.
Relationships: Ashlyn Harris/Ali Krieger
Comments: 6
Kudos: 174





	Why should marriage change a thing?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in my phone when I was in bed, just a quick idea.

After 10 years together, they had seen it all and they were so used to each other, nothing really felt different after marriage, and they believed nothing should, in fact, be different after marriage.

Their wedding had been months before, and now they had won an Olympics. Six months where yes, it had been a new kind of excitement to refer to each other as "my wife", but aside from that, nothing really changed. They were still goofing around the same, in love, affectionate, and still put work first and foremost and were strictly professional at it.

So for Ashlyn and Ali, they really thought 'great, nothing changes'. And it wasn't a bad thing. They were happy as they were and didn't feel they needed for things to change.

Until it happened.

It was the minute 80 of an international post Olympics friendly against Sweden, and the game had turned so aggressive that Ali had been subbed off minutes early after she had received an accidental slap to the face. It was nothing and she was fine, but her contact lense had really moved and, since there were few minutes left and plenty of capable players to sub in, she had asked to be subbed off so she could go to the locker room, clean her lense, and put it back on properly, as she couldn't see right as it was, not to mention it hurt and she didn't want to injure her eye.

So now she was resting on the sidelines, watching as her wife may just get the first clean sheet, 2-0, since the Olympics, and she was getting very excited. The Stadium in Orlando was at full capacity and it was roaring with the excitement of a good game, and then Sweden started a good offensive that brought the whole bench to their feet, getting together by the field line limit with the coaching staff to see what happened, full of adrenaline.

It was a bit of a confusing commotion when all the players seemed to be at the goal posts at once, with Ashlyn in there somewhere, then many leaps and jumps, and a few players of both teams collapsed to the ground on top of each other. Ali grimaced in empathy for her wife, who she knew was somewhere in the pile, but no one really knew what had happened.

As the players started to remove themselves off the pile grumbling apologices and standing back up, patting themselves in reassurance that they were just fine, the bench players started hypothesis on what may have happened. The screens were showing the play at slow speed, and Ali thought she saw some elbow land on Ashlyn's temple, but the whole thing was just confusing, even when the referee was already issuing yellows left and right.

Kelley O'Hara had now removed herself from the pile, and squatted by the one player who was still on the ground and who, judging by the different uniform, was undoubtedly Ashlyn, which made Ali frown and start to worry, keeping her eyes on then. Kelley moved, letting her see her wife's unconscious relaxed face turned to her side, with blood dripping from the side of her head and just a tiny bit of blood in her nostrils. Her nose didn't seem broken and Ali felt anxiety and worry hold hands and squeeze her heart tight with anguish. Ashlyn had been hit on the head a bunch of times since Ali knew her, and not once had she even been subbed off, let alone lost consciousness. She was a shark. Hard headed. Unbeatable. But now Ali was sure she had fainted and there had passed at least a couple minutes now.

She didn't know what face she had, but it must've been bad because, as the paramedics ran to attend Ashlyn, Julie Ertz, who stood by Ali and whose husband played American football, patted her shoulder.

"It'll be okay Ali, Ashlyn is a brick wall."

"She hasn't moved an inch, and she's been out for two minutes now," Ali muttered. Not only that, but her wife was looking paler by the minute, and she knew that wasn't her imagination playing tricks with her head. So when the paramedics suddenly started doing CPR on her wife and putting an oxygen mask over her mouth, the stadium went cold quiet and players started gathering around with anguished expressions, Ali had it.

She ran like hell to her wife, and she didn't care about whether it was okay or not for her to get into the field without permission, or about anything else. She saw the referee open her mouth towards her, and snapped.

"Give me a red if you want, but this is my wife!" My wife. And suddenly everything was different. She wasn't kneeling by her latest date. She was kneeling by her wife, anguished calling the name of who had to be mother of her children with her, patting the cheek of her parents-in-law's baby girl, and when Ashlyn's eyes opened and she started coughing blood, that was her wife being seriously injured, and she couldn't and wouldn't be pushed aside, they had to allow the wife by her side, they just had to. "Baby it's all right, we're going to take you to the hospital and everything is going to be okay, we've got you love, we've got you..." she didn't care if she was using pet names or if she suffered teasing for months, or was labelled as a dramatic wife. Damn right she was a dramatic wife, the love of her life was coughing blood, she'd be damned if she wasn't a dramatic wife. She'd be damned if she didn't offer hope and encouragement and whisper soothing sweet nothings while caressing Ashlyn's cheek lovingly as the paramedics put her on a stretcher. She'd be damned if she cared more about soccer rules than about the anguish in her heart over the fact that her wife was gravely wounded. Because it'd mean they weren't as in love and married as they liked to think.

"Ms Krieger, you need to step back..."

She interrupted the paramedic.

"I'm not leaving her, she's my wife and she's afraid of needles and hospitals, she's hurting and she needs me. Don't worry love, there's no way I'm leaving your side." Ali brought her hand to her lips and kissed it reverently.

"I think he only means move back a little for a second so they can stabilise her head," Pinoe clarified behind her, gently pulling her back just a bit.

A few hours later, well into the wee hours of the morning, everything was more or less okay, and yes, things had changed with marriage.

Because marriage meant that when someone had to authorise open chest surgery to fix a lung that had been punctured by a broken rib, Ali was the one asked. It meant when she wanted information, she got it. It meant she didn't have to prove to every hospital worker that they were in a serious and committed romantic relationship.

Ashlyn's eyes gently opened with the sunrise, relief washing over Ali as her young wife raised an eyebrow below the stitches on her head and smiled small at her.

"How are you feeling?" Ali struggled to recognize her own voice, as it was filled to the brim by so much sweetness and gentleness, while one hand caressed her wife's cheek and the other held her hand, sitting on her bedside at the hospital.

"Bit dizzy," Ashlyn murmured hoarse. "But I feel much better just looking at you, gorg."

Even under the circumstances, Ashlyn was still lifting her up and making her heart feel so full, and Ali couldn't help grinning.

"You know, we were wrong. Marriage changes everything."

"Really?"

"It gave us the magic words "my wife", and now I can get anyone to do the fuck I say and let me take care of you."

Ashlyn chuckled sleepy.

"Cursing, woah Kriegs."

Ali smirked.

"That's just one of the things that apparently I can so do for my wife now."

And as they kissed ever so tenderly, Ashlyn had to agree. Nothing had changed but at the same time, everything was different. Now they were wives, legally, and that meant everyone had to suck it and recognice the importance of their relationship, whether they liked it or not, and stand aside to let them just be together and involved with each other's care without restrictions, in health and specially, in sickness.


End file.
